This week, how to avoid contaminating Mars with microbial hitchhikers, turning mammalian cells into biocomputers, and a look at how underground labs in China are creating synthetic opioids for street sales in the United States with Online News Editor Catherine Matacic.

Caitlin Hicks Pries joins Julia Rosen to discuss her study of the response of soil carbon to a warming world.

And for this month’s book segment, Jen Golbeck talks to Rob Dunn about his book Never Out of Season: How Having the Food We Want When We Want It Threatens Our Food Supply and Our Future.

Listen to previous podcasts.

Download the show transcript.

Transcripts courtesy of Scribie.com.

[Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech; Music: Jeffrey Cook]